The people want to leave the European Union but business people and neoliberal politicians want a soft Brexit formula, i.e. have their cake and eat it or as we say in Mauritius “MANZ BANANN DAN DE BOUT”.
The Tories think that Britannia still rules the waves but these days are gone for good.
Not only is the Conservative Party divided; the country is also divided. We know that Scotland wants to stay within the European Union and, to do so, it will have to seek independence. What will Wales and Northern Ireland decide? Soft or hard Brexit has no solution to all these problems.
What is worse, right wing politics now has sovereign sway and masterdom throughout Europe. Isolationism, xenophobia and racism are becoming dominant features of European ‘culture’. Countries which have enriched themselves through slavery and exploitation of colonies, continue to rape Mother Earth and create conditions which threaten the very existence of life on Earth.
What should we, Mauritians, think and do?
Brexit or no Brexit, the Indian Ocean islands will bear the brunt of global warming and climate change through no fault of ours. Neoliberal selfishness and cupidity, corrupt to the very marrow, make matters worse in terms of inequality, injustice, poverty, insecurity and suffering.
Yet, there is one glimmer of hope: the British Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn. Will they be able to mobilise the British people and show the way to a new kind of development based on solidarity and sharing? Will they be able to pave the way to a COMMONWEALTH OF EQUAL NATIONS? Will they condemn the excision of the Chagos Archipelago? Will they help the Chagossians return to their homeland? Time will tell.
Neoliberalism is the problem. Only democratic socialism can imagine genuine solutions.
09.07.18